Musical Theatre Auditions and Casting

A performer's guide viewed from both sides of the audition table

Neil Rutherford

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781408160626
• eBook ISBN: 9781408174838
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Acting & Auditioning

Musical theatre is a tough and over-crowded industry. Yet, despite the huge competition, many performers find auditioning difficult with little knowledge of what the directors, creative teams and producers are looking for, or how to win the panel over with their unique talent. As a leading international casting director, Neil Rutherford has seen thousands of hopefuls audition over the years. Uniquely, he also understands what it is like to audition from his years as a professional actor in musical theatre. This book provides a unique perspective on the musical theatre audition process and how to improve the chances of landing a role. With wit, humour and insight, Neil Rutherford guides the reader through the crucial elements of musical theatre auditions, opening up the process of casting and auditioning to the thousands of hopefuls trying to secure work in this industry every year, as well as anyone involved in musical theatre. With a foreword by Tony-award-winning director Bartlett Sher, the book also contains contributions from some of the world's leading directors and musical directors, including Sir Richard Eyre and Jerry Mitchell, adding further valuable insight from those at the centre of the musical theatre world. This book is a vital tool for anyone hoping to improve their audition chances and survive in the world of musical theatre.

Section One

Before the Audition

1
How The Audition Process Works

The phone rings.

‘Darling, it’s Dorothy.’

‘Hi, Dorothy …’ You pull the bed covers a little closer.

‘You sound groggy, dear. Late night?’

‘Didn’t get in till three a.m. Had to clean all the tables, set up for the breakfast shift, empty the dishwashers …’

‘Well, Cinders, you’re going to the ball. I’ve got a spare ticket to the opening of Hamelot tonight. Come with me – there’s a casting director I want to introduce you to. And while we’re there, we can discuss those wonderful new headshots you’ve had done …’

You may well ask yourself, ‘Why do I need to know about the audition process? I just want to get into the audition room, sing, act, dance and get the job.’ I can understand that. In terms of you – the performer – you’ll get cast on your performances in the room on the day of your initial audition and subsequent call-backs (also called ‘recalls’ – I’m going to use the term call-backs throughout the book). Who cares about the process before your audition?

Yet I hear so many actors complain that they weren’t seen for such and such a musical or that a certain casting director dislikes them. Surely, then, it’s useful for you to know about the work that gets done before you get into the room, because it may help you to understand how much thought goes into our preparation for the production and the process we go through in order to find you. Most importantly, if you understand the odds you’re up against, it will also help you in terms of your own preparation within the business, and what you’ve already achieved before you’ve danced a step, sung a note or read a line.

Who are casting directors and what do they do?

Shortly after I became a casting director, a well-known and successful director grabbed my arm at a press night party, spilling a glass of red wine over one of my favourite jackets. After the initial kerfuffle of trying to blot the wine off my jacket, he proceeded to interrogate me.

‘And what are you doing, dear?’ he blurted. ‘Haven’t seen you on stage recently … resting?’

‘I’ve given myself over to the Dark Side,’ I said proudly, mopping myself down with a napkin. ‘I’m Head of Casting for the Ambassador Theatre Group.’

‘Oh no!’ He gasped theatrically, a look of disgust spreading over his face. ‘A casting director! Scum of the earth, dear, scum of the earth! A pointless job – any director worth their salt knows which actors they want in their company.’

Slightly taken aback, I gave him my business card and we promised ourselves a supper to catch up on old times. The meal never transpired. But the irony was that this same director called me up regularly for years afterwards asking for additional ideas of actors for specific roles he was trying to cast.

‘I don’t need a casting director of course, darling, but it would be wonderful to have your input.’ I bit my lip.

Some directors are very good at knowing and remembering actors, and certainly have favourites with whom they regularly work. And some directors or producers don’t use a casting director at all, preferring to use actors they’ve worked with in the past, seen in performance or know by other means.

But the fact is that not every director can possibly know every actor. At the time of writing, there are currently almost 36,500 actors registered as full members with British Actors Equity (and a further 5,000 students with provisional memberships), just over 48,000 members with American Equity, 40,000 registered on Spotlight (the UK’s leading online casting database) and 15,000 actors on Showcast in Australia. It’s obviously impossible for a casting director to know each and every one of these actors in their respective countries, but given that a key responsibility of a casting director is to suggest actors to producers, directors and other members of the creative team, we probably have a wider knowledge base than most and are arguably more proactive in regularly seeing actors in productions, workshops, classes and understudy runs and discovering students in their final-year productions and graduate showcases.

And so the role of a casting director has become important within the creative process for most professional productions. Indeed, casting the right actors, whether in leading roles or not, can make a significant impact on the success or failure of a production.

In a nutshell, I see my role as a casting director as having several key functions:

• Sourcing talent – being able to present the creative team (director, choreographer, producer, musical director, etc.) with a range of actors who, following initial discussions, it’s felt may be appropriate for the role in question.
• Setting up auditions – a casting director and his/her office will normally set up your audition time as well as send out audition material (scripts and music), give you feedback and notes on characterisation, and book audition rooms and pianists/readers. The exception is the Open Audition Call, which we’ll deal with in Chapter 4.
• Running the audition room – most casting directors will ‘run the room’; among other things they will look after the panel, take overall charge in welcoming the actor, leading the actor in discussion and guiding them through the audition, and closing the audition off. Some directors, or another member of the creative team, may wish to take some of these responsibilities. Others prefer to sit back and observe. It will change depending on the personality of the team.
• Mediating the casting process – creative people are often outspoken (it tends to come with the territory of being passionately artistic) and while everyone on the audition panel has the common goal of desiring the very best and most wonderfully talented cast available to us, there can often be debate about which actors should be considered. I believe it’s the responsibility of a casting director to mediate these sometimes difficult discussions, by keeping an overview of the casting process and who’s been seen, and by using the knowledge base of a particular actor’s abilities to feed into the discussion. If, for example, I know that someone – for whatever reason – has not lived up to their potential in the audition room, then it’s my job as casting director to speak up for them and suggest to the auditioning panel that they might see them again and hope the actor will prove themselves better at a call-back. A casting director is therefore integral in bringing everyone’s point of view together in order to aid the final decision of which actors to offer the roles to.
• Reporting back on the audition/feedback – most casting directors will aim to report back and give feedback to actors who have auditioned. This will be discussed later on in Chapter 5.

For some independent/freelance casting directors, that may be where their responsibility stops – presenting a high standard of actors appropriate to the role and being mediator in the post-audition discussions with the creative team. By the time the audition process is complete and the collective decision about who to cast is finalised, their job is effectively done and they wait in anticipation of the first performance.

With some producing companies, such as the Royal National Theatre, the Donmar Warehouse, the Royal Shakespeare Company and Ambassador Theatre Group in the UK, and the Lincoln Center, Roundabout Theatre Company, Playwrights Horizons, MTC, and the Public in America, the resident casting director may have additional responsibilities. These could include making offers and negotiating with agents or agentless actors, developing an ongoing relationship with the actors once the rehearsal process begins and further throughout the run of the production, ironing out any cast issues along the way.

Generally, during the audition process, the casting office will be the first port of call rather than the producer. Some producers also have general managers, who may be responsible for negotiating actor deals after the casting has taken place and who will liaise with the casting office throughout the audition process.

Initial conversations

Having already discussed and agreed the production with the producer, the director (and possibly the choreographer and musical director if they’ve been engaged by that point) will discuss their ideas for each of the roles with the casting director. Everyone will have already read the script by this point, and I tend to go into those early meetings with a wide list of actors who I feel represent the character. If the piece is a new work, these first discussions with the director may be quite lengthy. But at the end of these discussions we will normally have decided upon:

• the age range for each role
• vocal range (defined by the vocal score, although keys are sometimes changed to suit the voice of the actor finally cast)
• the physicality of each role (in terms of weight, height and other elements of physical appearance)
• accent requirement
• character type
• sex of the role (not as daft as you might think … it’s possible for a role to be played by the opposite sex. When producing Michael Grandage’s acclaimed production of Guys and Dolls in Australia, Magda Szubanski played the male role of Big Jule. Similarly, Lea DeLaria played Eddie in The Rocky Horror Show in New York. There have been female Hamlets and all-male productions of Shakespeare. At the time of writing there are at least five roles in London’s West End where our leading male actors spend a lot of time in a dress, not to mention a host of Cagelles and drag queens from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert).

Further discussions may refine these early decisions, or upon additional re-writes, readings or workshops of the musical these initial ideas may change completely. Even throughout the audition process it’s not uncommon for the auditioning team to continue to redefine what they are looking for, or indeed for an actor to come in with qualities we love and may not have previously thought about, refining our thoughts further.

How do casting directors find actors?

Following on from these initial discussions between the producers, director and other members of the creative team, the casting director’s next responsibility is to find the actors to present before the team.

There are a variety of ways in which we can achieve this, including:

• sending casting breakdowns to agents requesting actor suggestions
• using a personal or online casting database
• building casting lists based on our knowledge of actors
• seeing actors in work
• direct submissions from actors
• direct submissions from the creative team
• networking – meeting actors at social events or the theatre, etc.
• reputation – hearing about actors from others.

The casting breakdown

No, not the psychological breakdown I have when, having seen a hundred people in one long tiring day, no one has impressed us and we can’t cast a single role. No, by casting breakdown I mean the device by which we relay to agents and artists what type of actors we are seeking for each role to be cast.

Breakdowns are generally sent to agents either by fax, email or via an online casting service such as SBS, PCR, the Spotlight Interactive (all UK), Showcast (Australia), or Breakdown Express, Actors Access (US). I will normally send a full breakdown to most agents. Do bear in mind however that not all the characters may be included on a breakdown as we might have cast certain roles already.

A typical breakdown for a specific role could read as follows (where the name of the musical, who’s directing it, who’s producing it and the dates of the production, audition dates and whether it tours, etc. will also be stated):

ROLE: JAY MICHAELS – MALE – 20s

Jay is a straight-talking, fun guy, wearing his heart on his sleeve. Enjoying his life, he’s pleased to share his good luck with others and inspire them with his cheeky humour. This is a comic role requiring an actor with excellent comic timing and energy. Ideally handsome, with good physique. Jazz dance and great rock tenor voice with strong top G.

Needless to say, there is specific information contained within this breakdown which suggests whether you have the right qualities ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Contents
• Foreword by Bartlett Sher
• Contributors’ Biographies
• Introduction
• Section One: Before the Audition
• Section Two: The Audition
• Acknowledgements
• Glossary
• eCopyright